


Path of the Wasteland

by LittleLinor



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: AU IN WHICH THEY'RE ACTUALLY WITCHES, And also bonded familiars, F/F, Gen, alternate universe - Ciel the last autumn story crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 04:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16442867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Ciel The Last Autumn Story crossoverAko wasn't supposed toknowhow to use magic yet, but desperate situations call for desperate measures.And then create even more desperate situations.





	Path of the Wasteland

**Author's Note:**

  * For [UselessLilium (o0whitelily0o)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/o0whitelily0o/gifts).



> THIS PROBABLY WON'T MAKE THAT MUCH SENSE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ CIEL, but for some context:  
> Witches in Ciel MUST have a familiar before they start doing magic. Otherwise, when they open their "field," the space that allows them to use their powers, they'll stay stuck in it, and it'll continue to run on their magic and then lifeforce reserves until they die. A witch's familiar is the one person who can pull them out of their field (and one of the few who can even see it), and the bond is mutual, so they usually become life partners.
> 
> Please read Ciel, it's very gay and it has magic schools and romance and monsters, what more do you want?

The thing is, you knew what would happen when you went and opened your field. You've been around witches your entire life, and your sister taught you everything she learned every weekend when she came back from school. You knew from the start.  
But what else were you supposed to do? Let children get mauled by a monster? Stand by and let someone else get hurt, knowing you could have saved them?  
Witches serve the people. It's your purpose, what you've always believed your power was destined for. It's what Lowood trains you for.  
Not that you'll actually _get_ to go, now. And you'd finally been in the last stretch, too.  
But those monsters weren't going to wait one year for you to become a proper student.  
You look at the small marble in your hands. Inside, very far away, you can still see the monsters, trapped into a bubble that was much, much bigger than you when you created it. A void, like a world of darkness. Like the one you're trapped into right now. Dark, empty.  
You still see the children outside, vaguely. Like blurry echoes, as if through deep water. More people, come to look at the commotion, probably. You can barely hear their voices.  
“Never fear,” you try to call out, but your voice isn't quite steady. “The monsters are contained. Sealed in the dark… the darkness…” you try to continue as your voice starts to shake. “… it's okay.” Your throat hurts. “It's okay…”  
You feel, sound so small to your own ears, and in this void you can't hear anything else. Even the voices from outside are dimming.  
_If I die, will the monsters escape?_  
You don't want to think about it. But if it happens—if you die for _nothing_ , then that's even worse. If only you could put that marble somewhere safe…  
You take a step forward. Even though the world around you is so distant, you can still walk, apparently, passing through the world as if through water. You walk forward, and through the people rushing towards the spot you were in. Unseen and intangible.  
Barely existing anymore.  
_I wish Big Sis was there… She'd fry those monsters in no time._  
But you're alone. No one's going to come for you here, in this dark place outside reality. No one can even see you anymore. The best you can do—the best you can do it to get to the school, so that when you…  
…  
_I don't want to die_ , you think frantically, your breath stumbling out of control, panting so fast that it makes you dizzy. But you have to get to the school. You _have_ to. If the monsters get back out when you die, the teachers there will know how to handle it.  
You keep walking. Your lungs are tight and burning, from panic, not from effort. Walking in this space is easy, so easy, as if you barely exist at all. And with every step, the city gets further and further away. You can barely see it anymore. But you've taken this path hundreds of time, meeting your sister after school. You could go to Lowood with your eyes closed. You can get to Lowood even with tears blurring your vision, even with the world as tangible as a cloud.  
And finally you reach the gates. You almost don't notice, until you've walked through them, but suddenly the large mass of the school is in front of you, and people are pouring out of the front doors, walking through you. So many of them.  
Maybe this was a bad idea after all. It's more people, and the first years would be defenseless, if only you could know for sure that there's a teacher present, but how are you supposed to _tell_ , when the world is so blurry and you're so dizzy—  
A figure stops just short of going through you.  
You stop too, knocked out of your panicked stream of thoughts. They don't move, even as other people stream past them, on the sides. It almost feels like you're solid again.  
And yet, when you extend your hand, you still go through.  
“… I guess that's it, huh?” you whisper.  
“… Ako?”  
You blink.  
“Ako? Ako, is that you?”  
“R-Rinko? You can see me?”  
“I see something dark… like a shadow in the air… but I heard your voice… Ako where are you?”  
“It's me! It's me… I'm… I'm in there…”  
You're starting to cry again, and you hate it, but you're so tired, and you want to hug her so badly, but you can't. You can't.  
“… Rinko, listen.” By now several shapes have stopped around Rinko, but the rest move past and disappear. “I—I trapped some monsters. I'm holding them right now. But if I'm not there to hold the field anymore, they might get out—I'm not sure. But it's dangerous! You have to tell a teacher!”  
“The field?” She gasps. “Ako!”  
“There's no time! You have to get someone.”  
“But—”  
“… I'm at my limit,” you admit quietly, because you know it's the truth. You're not sure whether you'll be freed from this void when you die and your field gives out, or whether you'll just disappear with it. But you know it'll happen any time now. Your strength is starting to give out. “… I'm sorry, Rin-rin.”  
You still can't see her. But you can hear her when she sobs, and you're about to apologise again when she throws herself at you.  
And wraps her arms around your neck.  
You gasp. You're still in the void, but she feels _real_ , and her arms are tight around you and her body is warm, pressed against you, her face hidden into your hair at the top of your head. And suddenly you can almost see her again, as if all you needed was blink the blur out of your eyes…  
“Ako… Ako, I…”  
“… pull me out.” You cling to her, desperate, barely daring to think about it because _what if it doesn't work?_ “Rin-rin, pull me out!”  
Maybe, just maybe…  
She squeezes you tighter. Nods. And then takes a step back, pulling you with her, and the world exists again.  
Light hits your eyes so hard that you can't _see_ anything, but you can hear, smell, _feel_ the world around you, from the distant flow of the river to the ever-present smell of the school kitchens to the almost velvety caress of the humid air. Sensations so minuscule that you'd never have pulled them out of the mess of everyday life, suddenly so strong and vibrant after the emptiness of _nothing_.  
And you're crying again, but into her chest this time, dampening the fabric of her uniform and almost making it cling to your skin.  
“Rin-rin… _Rin-rin..._ ”  
She hugs you tighter than anyone ever has, and you let yourself collapse into her arms.  
“It's okay… it's okay. I'm here.”

When a teacher finally finds you a few minutes later, you're barely aware enough to tell, laying on the floor cradled in a kneeling Rinko's arms. You hand them the marble that they still can't see, and hope that they'll figure out how to keep it safe until you're awake, because even holding on that long has taken all that you're left, and you'd have passed out ages ago if it wasn't for Rinko's support.  
But now you can finally rest.  
“Ako?”  
“I just...” you slur, “I just… need to rest.” And as sleep starts to wrap your brain in a different kind of darkness, you tell her: “Rin-rin, you were really cool.”

**Author's Note:**

> Meanwhile, all of Rinko's teachers: OH FINALLY


End file.
